Monday, October 11, 2010

I am of the opinion that an electronics project is not finished until it is encased. I have lots of working boards sitting around and collecting dust (literally). They cannot be displayed/shown and sometimes not even touched as they are, since there is a potential for shorts or breaking connections because of the open circuitry or fragile wiring.

Here is an idea: a contest for the design of an enclosure, specifically for the BookClock project. I originally used a cardboard box as case, but that looks rather shabby. I tried to explore other, mostly wood-based (because opacity should be a requirement) solutions, but they are too complicated to manufacture (involving tooling, die-cuts etc). I think that one of the best suited solution for "mass" production and also accessible to amateurs and hobbyists, is laser-cutting the box sides, but this is just my suggestion.

So here are the contest rules and details:

submit plans, containing drawings with dimensions, for a box for BookClock; basically, the book-sized box should hold the 8x32 LED matrix display from Sure Electronics (datasheet here) on a side, and the Arduino board inside.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Thank you for 17 days of unbelievable patience.
I will ship all outstanding orders tomorrow, plus the promised (see comments here) gift (a small step to your next clock project).
It may sound like an excuse, but this kind of delay happens in the big leagues as well, even at a grander scale. I myself ordered from Texas Instruments their Chronos watch development kit, in November of 2009. Almost one year later, I received the shipping confirmation. If you don't believe me, look at the snapshot below.